Archive of Our Own ^beta

“My sweet girl” Nya cooed, buttoning up Maia’s coat for her. Maia was 7, finally old enough to venture with her father and brothers to go hunt, she had been waiting years for this day. ‘Tarrlok was 7 when he first went, so you can go when you’re 7’ was the condition her mother gave.

“Be safe okay?” Nya said, Maia responding with an eager nod, putting her hoodie on as she noticed the brewing storm approaching. “You 2 aswell” Nya told her sons looking over to them as they packed the last of the hunting supplies.

Tuluq let out a chuckle “you’re lucky princess, you’ll have 2 experienced hunters to learn from” He joked, patting her on the shoulder, though it felt like his mind was speaking of something else…

“You’ll be great teachers, won’t you boys?” Tuluq looked over to his sons, a moment of silence before Tuluq cleared his throat, indicating his sons had to say something. “Y-yep!” Tarrlok stuttered, forcing a smile onto his face. “We’ll teach Maia everything we know” Noatak responded, a pleased look on Yakones face from the eldest response.

“I’ll catch you the fattest turtle-seal mommy!” Maia promised, waving as she set off with the men of her house.

~

Maia got her bending when she was 5, the standard age, and oh how she was thrilled. She skipped in glee when her father would take her a few metres out the village to practice waterbending, sometimes a brother or 2 coming along for extra help, show her how its visually done rather than a verbal explanation.

Her bending meant she was one step closer to going on the trips, so she learnt with eagerness. She was a talented bender, both brothers admitted that to her, her father as-well saying she had excellent potential, not specifying on what she had potential on, but it still made her feel nice inside.

They was the occasional yell or snarky comment from her father if she messed up a more complicated style, but Maia refused to let that knock her down.

“Daddy, can you pick me up, my feet are hurting and it’s really cold” Maia requested, they had left at noon and now the sun had fully set, with little breaks the hunting party had been walking for hours, seemingly trying to get far away from any civilisation.

She had been walking right beside her father, his hand gripped tightly on her when she began to lag behind, the brothers behind pulling the sled with the majority of the supplies on. Most of the stops had been because Tarrlok forgot his mittens and the rope was beginning to make marks on his hands from how tightly he and Noatak had to tug so they wouldn’t fall behind.

“No, you’re old enough to walk on your own” Tuluq didn’t even give a glance at her, his focus on something else. Maia gave a huff, taking a few seconds to glance at her brothers dragging on with the sleigh, a sympathetic look on her face.

“Where are we going?” Maia inquired, looking back over to her father with a curios look, her eyes wide. “Just be patient Maia!” Tuluq lightly scolded, Maia let out a pout. “Does it have lots of animals there?” Maia pestered, Tuluq let out a impatient grumble “er..yes Maia, exactly that, now quiet!”

Maia let out a small sigh, trying to shield her eyes from the harsh blizzard raging on, it worked as a way to distract after being indirectly told to shut up. Tarrlok had a gloom in his eyes, this was the last thing he would have ever wanted for Maia, to be forced into this kind of path.

~

“You both” Yakone nodded his head over to a group of otter-penguins, Maia was about to go join her brothers but Yakone held her aside. “I wanna have a chat with you Maia” Yakone told her, sitting her over by a campfire he made Noatak and Tarrlok prepare.

Tarrlok felt an overwhelming lump in his throat forming as he tried not to cry, dragging his feet over to follow Noatak. A muffled sob finally escapes Tarrlok, some tears streaming down. “Don’t look, just don’t look” Noatak crouched slightly to be eye-to-eye with his brother, a small moment of warmth from the usually cold brother as he wiped Tarrloks tears off using his sleeve.

“If she sees you cry you’ll only worry her more” Noatak comforted, before reverting to his typical behaviour and walking over to the penguin-otters, Tarrlok nodded letting out a ugly inhale as he tried to suck his tears.

“Maia, I’ve told you many stories about republic city before, yes?” Yakone began, Maia nodding in agreement. “Republic City is also a potluck for crime Maia, crime that can make men powerful, and I was one of those men.” Yakone revealed, Maia froze before raising a brow, before she could chime in anything her father continued.

“My name isn’t Tuluq, my name is Yakone, and I was republic cities most feared crime boss” Yakone continued “and the most respected” he added with a smug grin. “You know how I achieved that title Maia?” Yakone asked, Maia didn’t want to answer, but she felt petrified and overwhelmed and confused. “N-no dad…” she mumbled.

“Bloodbending” he said with a sinister smirk “the most powerful yet feared bending in the entire world, it’s frowned upon nowadays thanks to that coward Katara declaring it illegal.” Yakone let out a annoyed huff before proceeding with his previous sentence.

“Fear commands respect my girl, that’s how I climbed the ranks, but that’s not why I brought you out here.” Yakone paused his explanation to stand up “bloodbending is, me, you, your brothers all descend from the greatest bloodbenders the world has ever known. That’s what you and your brothers were made to do, to master the power.”

“But dad, you’re not a bender…” Maia went from fear to skepticism, never once had she seen her father bend even the smallest drop of water before… but pointing that fact out only seemed to piss Yakone off. ‘The avatar took it from me, that’s why you must avenge me, you’ll reclaim what was once ours!” Yakone declared.

Maia went back to fear, she had heard the avatar having such ability, it’s how he ended the 100 year war in the first place. “You’re honestly lucky Maia, your brothers didn’t get to have a mentor that could properly show them the skill, and now you have 2.” Yakone told her, pointing over to where her brothers were.

Maia let out a frightened gasp, watching the display of otter-penguins letting out mournful cries of pain, she couldn’t fully understand what was happening but from what she saw Tarrlok was controlling them some how.

“Tarrlok stop! You’re hurting them!” Maia was about to rush over but Yakone grabbed her by the shoulder. “Hush Maia, you’ll break his focus, besides you haven’t even seen Noatak go yet.” He whispered to her, obviously impatient to see Noatak go.

Tarrlok stopped bending, turning over to see a scared Maia, a Maia that was scared of what he was. His eyes widened, a panicked expression as he saw his dear sister so terrified. The now freed otter-penguins hurriedly waddling away, before they paused, more pained cries coming from them.

“D-dad…Tarry’s not, what’s going on now?” Maia stumbled over her words. “Maia, some people have such great power in bending they don’t need to even move, Noatak is one of these people and soon you will be to” Yakone promised her.

The next hour was agony for Maia, she was so thankful for now she’d only come along for the ones on full moons, she was forced to watch poor animals having their body’s moved and lifted against their will. Promises of her one day doing the same thing to others, a part of her never wanted to bloodbend, another quickly figured if she didn’t she’d soon be more than scolded.

“Maia you try” Yakone soon demanded of her, they had located a rouge artic-hen that must have escaped from whatever place it had been kept in, and Yakone decided it would be a good starter for Maia to try and bloodbend.

Maia took a deep breath, clothing her eyes shut as she raised her arms, fists tightened as she tried to mimic how Tarrlok did it. Repeating ‘I’m sorry’ as she heard panicked noises from the hen. “Excellent work Maia, picked up even faster than Noatak” Yakone patted her on the shoulder.

Maia felt sick, tears forming at the ends of her eyes. She hates inflicting pain of these animals, “what are you doing?” Maia asked as she noticed Noatak immediately holding it down with bloodbending, Tarrlok taking a dagger. “How else are you supposed to eat girl?” Yakone patted her on the head, a small annoyed yet also amused chuckle leaving him.

Tarrlok know how to slice the throat correctly, he didn’t know chickens could live without heads. A gag from Tarrlok, a shriek from Maia and a small moment of shock from Yakone in one unanimous moment of chaos before Noatak got the job done.

~

Maia was significantly less whiny on the way back home. When she did arrive home she clinged to her mother, Yakone excusing the sudden behaviour as simply missing her mother while she was away, which Nya had found somewhat cute.

Maia was less…Maia, still bubbly and the light of the family but..she was more quiet and zoned out significantly more the day they came back. Nya even telling Maia she didn’t have to go hunting if she didn’t want to, but the looming presence of her father pushed her into a certain direction.

Maia was too busy gluing herself to Nya to vent or seek comfort from either older brother during the day, but the moment it was just them in the children’s room during night, she broke. Silenced tears running down her face as clutched onto Tarrlok, Noatak rubbing gentle circles on her back to try and soothe her, Tarrlok muttering sweet comforts.

“It’s not right” Maia sobbed, wiping away her snot from her wails “h-how could anyone…” “I know, I know.” Tarrlok cooed, tears rolling down on his face as well. “You won’t be alone” Noatak broke his silence, Maia sniffed before turning over to face Noatak, Tarrlok looking in-front over to Noatak.

“We’ll have each other to cope” he pointed out to the both of them, before looking solely to Maia “and when I’m 18, you, me, Tarry and mom will leave dad behind and form a new life where we’ll never ever bloodbend again” he painted a heartwarming fantasy for his sister.

“4 years, can you do that?” He asked his siblings, extending his arm out so that he’d be snuggling with Maia, and have a reaffirming hand on Tarrlok while they slept. “4 years…” Maia nodded, succumbing to slumber a few minutes later.

“Noatak…are you saying we should…” Tarrlok seemed to have an idea of what Noatak had in mind. “If we stay any longer, it’ll just get worse, what’s next, he wants the to bloodbend each-other? He’s taking it too far Tarrlok.” Noatak put it bluntly.

“But how are we supposed to tell mom about this, we can’t just leave her” Tarrloks voice began to sound alarmed “I love her to Tarrlok, but we need to do what’s best for Maia, and if that means running away so she can have a better childhood with dad far out of the picture, so be it” Noatak explained to Tarrlok.

“You…” Tarrlok let out a sigh “I miss when we couldn’t bend, when we just got to be happy and carefree” Tarrlok said in a nostalgic manner, as if he was reliving the memories in the very moment. “Me to, but you know what my least favourite part of those memories are?”

Tarrlok shook his head, he had very intact memories and couldn’t think of one thing wrong with his earliest days. “She wasn’t there” Noatak pointed out, looking at Maia for a moment. “Yeah…maybe those days weren’t so perfect after all” Tarrlok mumbled, a yawn escaping him.